Student from Jagiellonian University discovered a new comet passing near the Sun
New comet passing near the Sun has been discovered by a student at the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science of Jagiellonian University Michał Kusiak. It is his 102nd discovery under the international Sungrazing SOHO Comets project.
The discoverer explained that he identified the new comet on November 17 in the images of LASCO C3 coronograph, one of the instruments onboard SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Laboratory).
Over the next day the comet achieved a high brightness while developing a very impressive tail. The discovery was confirmed by Ruan Jiangao, comet hunter from China, and Karl Battams of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, the project coordinator of SOHO Sungrazing Comets.
In the night of 18 -19 November the comet came close to the sun, to a short distance of about 1 million kilometres. In result of strong influence from the Sun (tidal forces, the pressure of the solar wind, temperature) the comet did not survive its close passage.
SOHO takes updated images of the Sun and its close surroundings. Data are available after several minutes on several servers, from which each of the researchers participating in the observation can download them and analyse on a personal computer.
The comet of November 17 was the 102nd discovery of the researcher from Kraków, giving him the sixth position among participants from around the world. He participates in the project since 2004.
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